Politics in the Workplace
Cassie Brown • May 21, 2020
Do you talk politics at work?
As an employer, do you have a politics in the workplace policy? As an employee, do you talk politics in the workplace?
I've seen these conversations go really well and horribly wrong. In my experience, if you continue to adhere to your respectful workplace policies, then you are usually OK to talk about these subjects at work, when people can agree to disagree. I know that I don't agree with everyone of my family members, friends and colleagues about some political areas, and that has become heightened in the past few months with COVID-19, and also with a presidential election coming in a few months.
Are they still my family, yes. Are they still my friends, yes. Are they still my colleagues, yes. If you know me, you have likely heard me say that you can only control how you act and how you react in any given situation. You can certainly try to influence someone one way or another, and we frequently have to do this in our day to day working relationships, and our personal relationships, and we often have to compromise, or, in some cases, agree to disagree, which is OK. If we all had the same way of thinking, same ideas, and agreed on everything, think about how boring the world would be!
If you are an employer, I do think it is important for you to have a politics in the workplace policy to help guide those conversations and limit disruption in the office, and, depending on the state you are in, you might even need a voting policy. Some states require that you allow employees to take time off to vote, number of hours and paid/unpaid requirements vary by state.
Here are some things to consider if you have a politics in the workplace policy, or if you are thinking about adding one.
- Consider restricting the use of company facilities, including e-mail and public areas, for political solicitations as well as prohibiting pamphleteering on company premises and political banners or posters promoting a political affiliation. If you have a non-solicitation policy, you can point to this as well, however, make certain that you apply your non-solicitation policy to all things: girl scout cookies, candy bars, other fundraisers that employees want to solicit during working time, etc.
- You may want to allow campaign buttons and other similarly small displays of a political nature to be worn and/or exhibited in the office within a reasonable manner, provided it doesn't violate any other workplace policies (conduct, anti-harassment, etc.).
- Require employees to express their views as their own inside and outside of the office, and reiterate that they make clear that they do not represent the company in any way with their opinions and discussions with others.
- Remind employees not to wear any company-branded clothing/etc. when participating in any public political activities, so as not to be mis-interpreted that the company is supporting any particular candidate or issue.
- Often employees believe that they have unrestricted First Amendment rights to express their political views in the workplace. This is not the case. The First Amendment is specific to freedom of speech against the government, not a private employer.
- Remind employees when needed that the office is not an appropriate venue for expressive political demonstrations.
If you do decide to update your policy or create a new one, I recommend to keep it light and not overly restrictive and continue to point back to your code of conduct and/or respectful workplace policies. We want employees to have good conversations and healthy debates without crossing a line with colleagues.
Having started my career in a newspaper, there were a lot of healthy and unhealthy political conversations and debates in the newsroom, and very restrictive policies on how we talked about candidates and issues externally because we had to ensure no bias in our reporting. These policies went so far as to restrict certain employees from donating to political parties or causes.
My continuing political advice to everyone is: VOTE - whatever side of an issue you are on and whatever person you want to be in office, then talk loudest with your votes and petitioning your government leaders for the things that are important to you. Also, don't just use one source of the news/facts/reporting to understand what is happening in your community, state, country, world - as I say to my 20+ year old 'kids', just because it's on the internet, doesn't mean it's true!
Let me know if you need help developing a policy or any other HR services.
Thankful. In this year filled with so many unknowns and changes to the way we have to “be” with one another, it is perplexing to some to think about the things we are thankful for this year. I, however, didn’t seem to have any issue coming up with things I am thankful for in 2020. For the first time since my children were very young, (a time in our lives when everything was chaos most of the time with school, homework, after school activities, etc.), we sat around a table with each other and enjoyed dinner and “adult” conversation. My two college-aged sons came home for Spring Break in March and didn’t leave, moving to 100% remote learning and 100% in our refrigerator and pantry. We played games, had movie nights, worked on puzzles, told stories, found old home movies from when they were babies, and gained new appreciation for each other. I am thankful for this time with them. My husband and I both expanded our businesses, and while I became an expert on all things COVID, he became PMP certified. I worked on expanding my network, continuous learning, learning new industries, and mentoring others in the HR community. I am thankful that we are both working, supporting each other and supporting local businesses. We had powerful conversations with each other, with family and friends, with those who think like us and those who do not, with people we love, as our world stood divided over politics and racism. I am thankful for those who engage in respectful dialogue on these topics, who seek to understand, learn and share. We miss our friends and family we don’t get to see, and the “normal” we had been accustomed to all these years. I am thankful for the work we do to keep all of us safe, knowing that we will see one another soon, that this too shall pass. We are flexible and resilient, hopeful and compassionate, and most of all, thankful for the ability to choose how we show up every day. This week I choose to be thankful.
Don't tell me what you think/believe, show me.
As employers consider if they will need to furlough employees, lay them off, or are contemplating a reduction in force, here are some things to consider for planning purposes.